How do we handle and take care of excavated marble that remains in open air environment at an archaeological site? Swedish excavations began at Labraunda in 1948. No digging was carried out between 1960 and 1988, that is, until Professor Pontus Hellström at Uppsala University received the permission to initiate a new excavation period. In 2004 Professor Lars Karlsson became the director, and in 2009 I was asked to make a damage survey with the objective of planning conservation of the marbles which had by then been unattended for decades. The survey was made in 2010 and some conservation materials were tested in situ. The didactic program began in 2011 with the participation of conservation students from Gothenburg University. Some limited but systematic tests of consolidation substances were made during this first campaign, and an annual evaluation of the test areas is part of the project. Conservation continued in my direction, and with the participation of conservation students, in 2012 and in 2013. The project has been presented at conferences and in article. See Publications, read more about the marble conservation project.
The conservation project is an integral part of the archaeological research project at Labraunda.
